William Andrew Stranko, 90, a son of Beaver County, Pa., and a resident of Morgantown, was reborn into eternity on Sept. 1, 2019, at the Madison Center in Morgantown.
Bill was born to this world on March 1, 1929, in Ambridge, Pa., the first child of Andrew and Louise Granitz Stranko. His father was a long-time employee of the steel industry in Ambridge and a community volunteer in Harmony Township. His mother arrived at Ellis island in 1923 from her family home in Vienna, Austria. Together Andrew and Louise raised four children, William, Sylvia, Paul and Esther. This family, and their flourishing descendants, realized and are realizing the American dream of equal opportunity and progress through education, hard work, service and faith.
After graduation from Ambridge High School, Bill enlisted and served in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged to return to Pennsylvania. He still had a GI haircut when he met Shirley Jean Stuckert, a South-side Pittsburgh girl among the skating crowd frequenting roller rinks around the city. They were soon a competitive dance team. The dance lasted, through good and bad times, until his lifelong love and wife Shirley departed this world in 2009.
Bill made his living as a petroleum engineer for ARCO. He traveled tirelessly throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, selling and servicing industrial lubricants to the booming factories and mines of the post-war era. His customers came to rely on his judgment and support to keep the wheels of industry well-greased.
His volunteer service to the community was remarkable. Bill was an Eagle Scout (Class of 1944) and an adult volunteer for the Boy Scouts, the YMCA and the American Red Cross. He taught hundreds of children how to swim at his popular Saturday morning YMCA swim schools. The lifeguard, water safety and boating classes he conducted for the Red Cross allowed many children and adults to enjoy the water and to protect others while doing so. For many summers, he took YMCA campers from Camp Kon-O-Kwee to northern Ontario for adventure camping that, for many, was a life-changing experience. His career as an adult Scouter included service as Scoutmaster of Troop 905 and the founding Skipper of Sea Explorer Ship 905. Always ready to help, Bill’s long time Scouting service was honored by a Silver Beaver award.
All this, and more, he shared generously with his well-loved and grateful sons, William Andrew, Timothy Paul and Charles Allen. William and Timothy survive their father, as do his beloved grandchildren, Adelia Marie, Darby Lynn, Benjamin Charles and William Davis. In them he found enduring comfort and reason for optimism. He is also survived by his sister, Sylvia Stranko Glas, of Economy, Pa., and a sister-in-law, Ann E. Stranko, of Harmony Township, Pa.
In addition to his wife and parents, he is preceded in death and together again with his son Charles Allen and his siblings, Paul Robert Stranko and Esther Stranko Chelsea. Bill is interred next to Shirley at the Beaver Mausoleum in Beaver, Pa.
The family sends love and special thanks to the staff of the Madison Center in Morgantown for the extraordinary care Bill enjoyed through the last years of his life and for their compassionate palliative care as he passed over.
If these few words constitute the remains of his life, know that, above all, he believed and therefore he lives yet (John 11:25).
Condolences:
www.fredjenkinsfuneralhome.com
